PR & words

Make do & mend

On Friday night, one of my close friends came round to my flat. After a hideous week I was very much in need of a night in with a girlfriend, Harry Potter and pizza. Naturally, we got talking about some pretty deep stuff as Harry, Ron and Hermione hijacked the bodies of three Ministry of Magic staff and stole the horcux off ol’ Umbridge.

We talked about how willing people are to give up on things – fun, fun fun! At the moment, my Facebook & Twitter feed and that hideous right-hand column of Daily Mail Online are filled with couples breaking up, divorces, and ‘conscious un-coupling’ (Gwen babes, there really is no euphemism for ‘divorce’ I’m afraid.) Couples I know who I thought were as happy as Larry, and Hollywood couples I was so sure would make it are crumbling in front of my eyes. Whilst I really don’t care about the latter (unless Bey and Jay break-up, I would have to go into mourning) it does make me realise the sheer number of relationships that don’t last.

Two pizzas down and a few tears shed during Harry and Hermione’s dance scene we began to compare the world we live in now, to 100 years ago because obviously we’re such experts on 1914! Okay, we’re not but we do recognise that back in the day couples didn’t break up as soon as the going got tough. In 1914 a divorce or breakdown of a marriage would have been a scandal (I’m no historian so do inform me if it was illegal) people fought for each other, like with so many things, people just refused to give up so easily.

It wasn’t just love that people fought for 100 or even 50 years ago. Everything was more cherished. If you got a hole in your jumper, you sewed it back together again and if you didn’t know how you would learn, if your car broke down, you’d fix it. Nowadays it seems everything has a sell-by-date. We throw away ‘broken’ personal possessions before we even think about getting them fixed, we discard the latest gadget we claimed to love six months ago only to replace it with something quicker, swankier and apparently so much better because we ‘need it’ and today when a relationship hits a hiccup we walk away. Why? Because we are told there are lots more fish in the sea and 100 ways to meet those fish.

We are all so spoiled by options. I used to think that having options was a good thing, but now I’m not so sure. As a generation, we’ve lost that fighting spirit. We accept things that we think we deserve and take the easy road rather than striving for what we truly love. I can’t tell you how many people I know who were once so passionate about their chosen career path, they wanted to be journalists, lawyers some even actors, but now they tell me they’re going into teaching or recruitment because they ‘can’t get a job, it’s too tough’. I think the teaching profession is an incredible path to take, but how many teachers are in that job as a cop out or second choice?

I wish people would fight more for what they believe in. Too many people think an ‘easy life’ is the way forward or that the grass is greener on the other side. For some, they think that their relationship, the one they used to cherish so much is over simply because it’s got tough. You know what? Life is tough, it really is. And whilst we all want the glitz, glam and romance of the movies that just isn’t real life. People should hold on more to what they care about and fight, we shouldn’t give up so easily and remember how our ancestors used to make do and mend rather than walk away because some things are so worth fighting for.